Tuwani(R)Esiste

Despite documentation, Israeli officials deny knowledge of expansion

(Italian follows)

November 11, 2013

At Tuwani – The Israeli outpost of Havat Ma’on (Hill 833) in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills is growing at a phenomenal rate since the beginning of October. On Saturday November 9, the activist group of Ta’ayush (an Arab and Jewish grassroots nonviolent movement) and international peace activists entered the outpost in order to document the illegal works taking place and to ask the Israeli authorities to stop the expansion.

The activist group videotaped a large construction site, but settlers and the Israeli police and army prevented them from fully documenting the expansion of Havat Ma’on. Furthermore two masked settlers attacked the activists, throwing stones at them. In spite of the presence of the Israeli police, there were no consequences for the attackers.

Later, two settlers from Havat Ma’on came toward the nearby Palestinian village of At Tuwani.  One settler approached a Palestinian home and provoked the residents. A group of Palestinians from the village gathered near the house and the settler was distanced by the police.

The inhabitants of the nearby Palestinian village of At Tuwani and international observers have documented the expansion of Havat Ma’on since October 6, when they photographed a scraper while it was entering the outpost; they also later heard noises from the construction works. Several days later, internationals documented an excavator digging the land. Documentation of the entire construction process was not possible, however, because of the presence of woods that obstruct the view.

Despite receiving several notices of this expansion, when an Israeli activist informed the Israeli official responsible for the infrastructure of Hebron and the South Hebron area from the District Coordination Office (DCO), the official declared that DCO officers inspected the area and did not see any construction work.

From Havat Ma’on outpost come a lot of violences and threats against the local Palestinian communities. Just in the lands surrounding the outpost, Operation Dove volunteers have recorded a total of 43 incidents since the beginning of the 2013 in which local settlers are involved: 13 cases of Palestinian property damages (primarily olive trees); 13 violent attacks and 17 harassments and threats against Palestinians, Israelis and internationals.

While the Palestinian and Bedouin villages of Area C, including the South Hebron Hills, suffer from Israel’s ongoing policy of demolitions and threats, the nearby outposts and settlements continue to expand.

“Most of Area C has been allocated for the benefit of Israeli settlements, which receive preferential treatment at the expense of Palestinian communities, including with regard to access to land and resources, planning, construction, development of infrastructure, and law enforcement” declared the United Nations OCHA oPt (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in occupied Palestinian territories) in the report regarding the Area C, issued on January 2013.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: http://snipurl.com/285e8i5

For further information:

Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

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After NGO files complaint against Israeli military training inside West Bank villages, IDF’s Military Advocate General says legality of training is anchored in principles of ‘belligerent occupation.’

By Gili Cohen – Nov. 3, 2013

There is no legal barrier to Israel Defense Forces training inside Palestinian villages in the West Bank, according to a document prepared by the IDF’s Military Advocate General.

Maj. Harel Weinberg, the MAG’s deputy prosecutor for operational affairs, wrote that the legality of training inside Palestinian villages is anchored in the principles of “belligerent occupation,” by which the military commander, who is the sovereign authority in the area, is obligated to maintain security and public order in the West Bank, and so must hold occasional training exercises in populated areas.

Still, Weinberg wrote that troops taking part in such training were required to “avoid putting the population at risk, damaging their property or causing unreasonable disturbance to their daily routine.” The document was written in response to a complaint filed by activists of the Yesh Din NGO following a series of incidents involving IDF training in villages.

In one incident last May, troops held an exercise in the middle of the village of Amatin. In another case three months ago, during Ramadan, the army held a training exercise at Tel Rumeida in Hebron while a family there was eating breakfast in their yard. According to a report by family members, about 15 soldiers broke into their yard without permission, scattered throughout both floors of the home, and practiced breaking into a home using special equipment — all while family members were inside.

The IDF Spokesman said: “After looking into the matter, the Military Advocate General found that there was no legal obstacle to holding training in inhabited areas as part of maintaining security in the area. The orders issued for the drills that take place in populated urban areas include a statute requiring coordination with the ones doing the drill. It will also be made clear that as part of the training exercises, the soldiers must avoid putting the population at risk, damaging their property or causing unreasonable disturbance to their daily routine. Anywhere that there are deviations from these rules, the Military Advocate General will order that clarification be given and will take the appropriate measures.”

At Tuwani, 4 November 2013

Yesterday morning Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills village of Bir al Idd found the sole access road to their village closed by a road block composed of two big stones. These stones were placed precisely in front of the nearby illegal outpost of Mitzpe Yair.

When at around 8:30 AM several Palestinian, Israeli and international activists arrived on the scene, they saw the road block (most likely made by the settlers) and a settler shepherd grazing his sheep on the field adjacent to this path.

The activists immediately informed the Israeli army so the road block would be removed. Five minutes later Israeli soldiers arrived at the area to monitor the situation, but they didn’t remove the roadblock.

The activists then called the Israeli police and waited for about 40 minutes, but the police failed to arrive. The road block was then removed by the Israeli army at around 1.00 pm.

This is not the first time this kind of harassment occurs on this road. On August 18, settlers from Mitzpe Yair built there twice in one day a road block, which prevented access to the village for over six hours (see more: http://snipurl.com/27ystqj).

Soldiers pushing Palestinian away, after declaring “close military area”

On November 2 at around 8.30 AM, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists organized an action to access the Palestinian-owned land in Umm Al Arayes (in front of Mitzpe Yair outpost). Like all saturdays for almost one year already, the Palestinian landowners are claiming their right to return to their land, on which settlers from Mitzpe Yair have built greenhouses.

Demolition orders have been issued against the greenhouses by the Israeli District Coordination Office. However, when several Palestinians arrived near the outpost, some ten settlers came out and pushed them in aggressive manner. Suddenly Israeli soldiers and Border Police officers declared the area a “close military zone” and started to push all the people away – but not the settlers.

After several minutes, two Palestinians (the owners of the field) were arrested, but nothing was done about the settlers who remained in this closed military area. The two Palestinians were released Sunday, after the payment of a bill of 1500 NIS for each person.

In previous weeks, like on Saturday, the Israeli army declaration of lands as closed military zone has impeded the Palestinians from accessing their land and this right. Since 2001 the Palestinians in the area have faced restricted access to these lands.

Soldiers prevent Palestinian to access their land

Other pictures of the nonviolent action: http://snipurl.com/283zkjh

Non è la prima volta che mi ritrovo così vicino all’avamposto di Avigayil, sulle colline a sud di Hebron/ Al Khalil. Lo conosco bene: dopo aver passato la piccola e sinuosa strada asfaltata, dalla quale si inizia a vedere l’avamposto, leggermente sulla destra c’è la valle più profonda. Scendendo verso gli ulivi il crinale è ripido. Se non si fa abbastanza attenzione si rischia di scivolare sugli ultimi quindici metri di discesa.

Conviene passare un pochino più a sud, avvicinandosi all’avamposto, per poter avere un passaggio più agevole. Poi, semmai, si possono prendere di nuovo le distanze risalendo sulla collina di fronte, dalla quale si ha un’ottima vista sia sulle case-container di Avigayil che sulla piccola e sinuosa strada asfaltata, dalla quale arriveranno, anche oggi, le camionette dell’esercito israeliano. A meno di non essere nel fondo valle, di solito c’è molto vento: benedizione d’estate e calvario d’inverno. Questa stessa valle culmina a sud, verso l’avamposto, in alcuni terrazzamenti che formano un anfiteatro. Al di sopra di questi c’è una rientranza nella roccia, con una specie di pozzo, dove i coloni amano rinfrescarsi mostrando, eventualmente, le loro nudità. Sempre in alto, ma sulla sinistra, c’è un campo di ulivi e una curiosa tettoia dove, d’estate, le famiglie di Avigayil si recano per rilassarsi. I bambini giocano, i genitori chiacchierano. Mai prima delle quattro del pomeriggio. Sui terrazzamenti della conca ci sono prati insolitamente verdi ed erbosi per la stagione. Gli stessi sono non-recintati da una serie di pali di ferro posizionati, l’uno dall’altro, a una distanza che varia da cinquanta centimetri a un metro e mezzo.
Ed è proprio qui che ci troviamo. Nel mezzo del non-recinto, sopra il terrazzamento più alto.
A dire il vero in passato mi sono trovato molto più vicino alle case-container di Avigayil. Non mi sento ancora “nel loro giardino”. È per questo che sono relativamente tranquillo, anche se i palestinesi parlano a voce bassa e fanno cenni con le mani e la testa. Siamo in sette: cinque pastori, di cui tre minorenni, e due ajaneb (stranieri in arabo). Le quattro greggi – non meno di duecento capi, tra pecore e capre – sono interamente all’interno del non-recinto.
Dopo una ventina di minuti di pascolo, A., 14 anni, lascia il suo gregge e si dirige ancora più in alto, verso il limite superiore dell’area arbitrariamente delimitata. A. si gira e – mi accorgo – ha uno sguardo d’intesa con l’altro pastore, M., poco più che ventenne. I due si scambiano una serie di segnali, di gesti col capo e qualche parola sottovoce.
Ed ecco che inizia “l’azione”.

Video by Ta’ayush

Activist’s footage shows settlement security coordinator telling soldiers to make arrests.

By Amira Hass, October 27 2013 – Video by Operation Dove

VIDEO: http://bcove.me/kbzpg6me

The Israeli army will launch an internal investigation into two cases in which soldiers allegedly arrested Palestinian shepherds on false pretexts, the IDF Spokesman’s Office has told Haaretz.

The investigation, under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces advocate general and the army’s criminal investigation division, will be studying allegations that troops from the Kfir Brigade arrested Palestinian shepherds near the village of A-Tuwani in the southern Hebron Hills, taking them away from their flocks and pastureland for hours.

In the first incident, as shown in a video taken by an international activist who was at the scene, the soldiers arrested a shepherd on the direct order of an Israeli man named Gedalia, who is the security coordinator of the settlement of Maon. In the second incident, a commanding officer claimed the grazing was forbidden because it was too close to the outpost of Mitzpeh Avigayil. The shepherd testified that the soldiers struck and abused him.

In the A-Tuwani region, international and Israeli activists escort the local farmers and shepherds to their fields because of constant attacks by the residents of the outposts and settlements. The army and police often send the farmers and shepherds away to prevent friction with the settlers. But this was the first time in local memory that shepherds were kept from their pastureland by arrests made on the orders of settlers.

On the morning of Tuesday, October 15, Maon security coordinator Gedalia arrived at Ghali Hill, where Mohammed Shawahin, 31, of the nearby village of Jawiya, was grazing his flocks. Shortly after Gedalia appeared, a military vehicle containing four soldiers, three men and a woman, arrived. Shawahin got the message and tried to leave. But the woman soldier shouted at him: “You’re not going anywhere. Don’t you hear me? I’ve got a gun. You stay here. Don’t you hear me? You stay here. I don’t care. You stay here. Right here.”

It was then the sheep began dispersing. The security coordinator told the soldiers, “He [the shepherd] isn’t carrying an identity card.” In the video documentation, the sergeant can be heard asking, in Hebrew, “What do you want us to do?” The security coordinator said, “He was here yesterday, too — the exact same thing. I want you to hold him, find out who this person is, find out who this terrorist is.”

Shawahin offered to return to his home, a few hundred meters away, and come back with his identity card. The international activist tried to tell the soldiers that two days before, different soldiers had appeared and confirmed that grazing in the area was permitted. But the commanding officer decided to arrest Shawahin anyway, and handcuffed him. Shawahin was taken by jeep to an army camp in the settlement of Sussia. Ninety minutes later he was taken to the settlement of Shim’a, about 17 kilometers southwest of where he was arrested. He returned home on foot about seven hours after he was arrested.

On the morning of October 16, the same jeep appeared, only with different soldiers this time, on the road near the wadi and the privately-owned land on which Nael Abu Aram, 26, of the village of Qawawis, was grazing his flock. Two teenage boys were with him. Abu Aram testified that one of the soldiers took the pipe one of the teenagers was carrying and began striking the sheep to disperse the flock. The soldiers insisted that Abu Aram answer them in Hebrew and refused to believe him when he said he did not speak Hebrew. For several seconds, he managed to film the commander of the troops (Duchifat Battalion soldiers who completed their training in March 2013) telling him: “You’re not allowed to be here, right? You’re not allowed to be here, because this is [the unauthorized outpost of] Mitzpeh Avigayil. You’re not allowed to be here. There’s a Jewish community here, and you’re not allowed near it.”

Abu Aram said that when he tried to use his cellphone to call for help, the commander held his hand strongly, twisting his fingers. “He almost broke them,” he said. The soldiers handcuffed him, blindfolded him and made him get into the jeep. He says he was held for two or three hours at the army base in Sussia, in one of the prefabricated buildings (which he managed to see when his blindfold was removed for a few minutes). There, he testified in a video recorded by activists of the Ta’ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership, the soldiers struck, abused and cursed him while he was still handcuffed and blindfolded. He said they struck him on the chest, back and legs, held a burning cigarette to his mouth and extinguished it on his face, near his mouth. Later on, he was taken to the area near Shim’a, about 15 kilometers from the place where he had been arrested. He returned home about six hours after his arrest. On the afternoon of the same day, the same commanding officer from the Duchifat Battalion tried to arrest another shepherd in the same area on the same pretext — being too close to the settlement — but the shepherd firmly refused to get into the jeep. Because several international activists were present, together with a Ta’ayush activist, the commanding officer backed down.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office responded: “Each of these two incidents will be investigated thoroughly by the relevant parties, including the military advocate general and the army’s criminal investigation division, to clarify the circumstances. We emphasize that IDF troops act on the orders of their commanding officers in the field and are not subject to the orders of security coordinators.”

On October 25, at 7:40 a.m. gathered on the entrance of the At Tuwani village a group of about 70 people, among which some settlers from Ma’on and from other nearby settlements and outposts, accompanied by three Israeli military jeeps and Border Police. Around 8:00 a.m. they moved into the village.  Several of them were armed with M-16s and handguns. The group stopped in different places in the village also entering in old Palestinian stone houses and caves infringing the private properties. Subsequently they invaded the archeological site located between several Palestinian homes, in the middle of the village. The whole group stood there for at least one hour, while some of them were provoking the Palestinian inhabitants. One young settler harassed a girl from At Tuwani threatening to throw her a stone. 

In this area some archeologists, escorted by Israeli army, excavated in 2011. In December of the same year, during a meeting in the settlement of Susiya, some Israeli archeologists explained that in the site there is an ancient synagogue. In the meeting was also explained how to reach the site. Others experts that came in the village affirmed that the evidences are dating from the Byzantine period. However these results have never been officially confirmed.

At Tuwani inhabitants asked to Border Police officers and soldiers explanations, and told them that some of the settlers present in the village, had attacked and threatened them and their families on the graze lands or field. They were completely unheard and one Palestinian was even identified by the Border Police. In response to this, the women of the village of At Tuwani arrived on the scene, preventing an unjustified but likely arrest.

Later, the entire group moved to the village of Ar Rakeez and stopped again in front of a Palestinian home. Despite the fear, the owner of the house offered some bread to the settlers. After this, they all went toward the bypass road 317.

The people of the caravan did not give details on the escorted tour, or even on the private property infringement. They just said they visited the synagogue in the Jewish village “Khirbet At- Tuwani”. During the whole tour some settlers, even armed, tried repeatedly to prevent the internationals from taping the events and insulted them.

This is just the last of several ongoing provocations carried out by the Israeli army and settlers to which the South Hebron Hills palestinian communities keep responding in a nonviolent way.

Pictures of the incident: http://snipurl.com/2825ydr

“Un vincitore è un sognatore che non si è mai arreso” (N. Mandela)

Chi vive, ha vissuto o semplicemente è vicino ad Operazione Colomba conosce bene questa frase stampata sulle magliette che indossano i volontari che condividono la vita con le vittime delle guerre, presenze di pace nei conflitti armati.

Siamo certi che per far avverare un sogno bisogna osare. Non lasciare che le paure prendano il sopravvento. Ci vuole coraggio. A volte il coraggio di fare una proposta, per rispondere ad una necessità.

La richiesta parte dalle comunità palestinesi dei villaggi delle colline a sud di Hebron. Palestinesi che, una ventina di anni fa, decisero di scegliere la nonviolenza come unica strategia di resistenza. per continuare ad abitare le proprie terre e rispondere all’occupazione armata e civile israeliana. Parte da queste parole di un membro del Comitato Popolare: “La nonviolenza è come un albero, che per crescere ha bisogno di acqua. Ognuno di noi, uomini, donne, bambini, anziani cerca di dare il proprio contributo. Ma abbiamo bisogno anche di voi. Aiutateci a dare da bere all’albero della nonviolenza”.